System and method of making unstructured data available to structured data analysis tools

ABSTRACT

A system and method of making unstructured data available to structured data analysis tools. The system includes middleware software that can be used in combination with structured data tools to perform analysis on both structured and unstructured data. Data can be read from a wide variety of unstructured sources. The data may then be transformed with commercial data transformation products that may, for example, extract individual pieces of data and determine relationships between the extracted data. The transformed data and relationships may then be passed through an extraction/transform/load (ETL) layer and placed in a structured schema. The structured schema may then be made available to commercial or proprietary structured data analysis tools.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to applications “Schema and ETL Tools forStructured and Unstructured Data” and “Analysis and Transformation Toolsfor Structured and Unstructured Data,” filed even date herewith.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed generally to software for dataanalysis and specifically to a middleware software system that allowsstructured data tools to operate on unstructured data.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Roughly 85% of corporate information and 95% of global information isunstructured. This information is commonly stored in text documents,emails, spreadsheets, interne web pages and, similar sources. Further,this information is stored in a large variety of formats such as plaintext, PDF, bitmap, ASCII, and others.

To analyze and evaluate unstructured information, there are a limitednumber of tools with limited capabilities. These tools can becategorized into four distinct groups of tools. These are (1) entity,concept and relationship tagging and extraction tools, (2) enterprisecontent management and knowledge management tools, (3) enterprise searchcategorization tools, and (4) document management systems.

Entity extraction tools search unstructured text for specific types ofentities (people, places, organizations). These tools identify in whichdocuments the terms were found. Some of these tools can also extractrelationships between the identities. Entity extraction tools aretypically used to answer questions such as “what people are mentioned ina specific document?” “what organizations are mentioned in the specificdocument?” and “how are the mentioned people related to the mentionedorganizations?”

Enterprise content/knowledge management tools are used to organizedocuments into folders and to share information. They also provide asingle, one-stop access point to look for information. Enterprise toolscan be used to answer questions such as “what documents do I have in afolder on a particular terrorist group?” and “who in my organization isresponsible for tracking information relating to a particular terroristgroup?”

Enterprise search and categorization tools allow key word searching,relevancy ranking, categorization by taxonomy, and guided navigation.These tools are typically used to find links to sources of information.Example questions such tools can answer include “show me links todocuments containing the name of a particular terrorist” and “show melinks to recent news stories about Islamic extremism.”

Document management tools are used to organize documents, controlversioning and permissioning, and to control workflow. These toolstypically have basic search capabilities. Document management tools canused to answer questions such as “where are my documents from aparticular analysis group?” and “which documents have been put in aparticular folder?”

In contrast to unstructured or freeform information, structured data isorganized with very definite relationships between the various data.These relationships can be exploited by structured data analysis toolsto provide valuable insights into the operation of a company ororganization and to guide management into making more intelligentdecisions. Structured data analysis tools include (1) businessintelligence tools, (2) statistical analysis tools, (3) visualizationstools, and (4) data mining tools.

Business intelligence tools include dashboards, the ability to generatereports, ad-hoc analysis, drill-down, and slice and dice. These toolsare typically used to analyze how data is changing over time. They alsohave the ability to see how products or other items are related to eachother. For example, a store manager can select an item and query whatother items are frequently purchased with that item.

Statistical analysis tools can be used to detect fraud, check qualitycontrol, fit-to-pattern analysis, and optimization analysis. Typicalquestions these tools are used to answer include “what is the averagedaily network traffic and standard deviation?” “what combination offactors typically indicate fraud?” “How can 1 minimize risk of afinancial portfolio?” and “which of my customers are the most valuable?”

Visualization tools are designed to display data graphically, especiallyin conjunction with maps. With these tools one can visually surf and/ornavigate though their data, overlay and evaluate data on maps with ageographic information system (GIS), and perform link and relationshipanalysis. These tools can be used, for example, to show trends andvisually highlight anomalies, show a map color-coded by crime rate andzip code, or answer the question “who is connected by less than 3 linksto a suspicious group?”

Data mining tools are typically used for pattern detection, anomalydetection, and data prediction. Example question that can be addressedwith these tools are “what unusual patterns are present in my data?”“which transactions may be fraudulent?” and “which customers are likelyto become high-value in the next 12 months?”

Tools for analyzing structured data are far more flexible and powerfulthan the current tools used to analyze unstructured data. However, theoverwhelming majority of all data is unstructured. Therefore it would beadvantageous to have a middleware system and method that allowsstructured data analysis tools to operate on unstructured data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system and method making unstructureddata available to structured data tools. The invention providesmiddleware software system that can be used in combination withstructured data tools to perform analysis on both structured andunstructured data. The invention can read data from a wide variety ofunstructured sources. This data may then be transformed with commercialdata transformation products that may, for example, extract individualpieces of data and determine relationships between the extracted data.The transformed data and relationships may then be passed through anextraction/transform/load (ETL) layer and placed in a structured schema.The structured schema may then be made available to commercial orproprietary structured data analysis tools.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method of makingunstructured data available to structured data tools comprisingaccessing a source of unstructured data; extracting the unstructureddata; writing the extracted unstructured data to a capture schema;sending the unstructured data to a transformation tool; transforming theunstructured data with the transformation tool; writing the transformedparsed unstructured data in a structured analysis schema; providing dataconnectors that allow structured data analysis tools to access thestructured analysis schema.

In one aspect of the invention, extracting includes parsing theunstructured data and associating the data source with the parsedunstructured data. In another aspect of the invention, thetransformation tool extracts individual pieces of data and performs textand/or data processing activities. In another aspect of the invention,the text and data processing activities include: determining the topicof a section of text, extracting a section of text from a wholedocument, matching names, or matching addresses. In another aspect ofthe invention, the structured data tools include business intelligence,statistical analysis, data visualization and mapping, or data mining. Inanother aspect of the invention, the source of unstructured dataincludes email, word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentationmaterials, PDF files, web pages, news/media reports, case files,transcriptions, file servers, web servers, enterprise content,enterprise search tool repositories, intranets, knowledge managementsystems, or document management systems. In another aspect of theinvention, the transformation tool includes: (i) entity, concept andrelationship tagging and extraction tools, (ii) categorization and topicextraction tools, (iii) data matching tools or, (iv) customtransformations.

Another embodiment the present invention provides a system for makingunstructured data available to structured data tools comprising code toaccess a source of unstructured data; code to extract the unstructureddata; code to write the extracted unstructured data to a capture schema;code to send the unstructured data to a transformation tool; code totransform the unstructured data with the transformation tool; code towrite the transformed parsed unstructured data in a structured analysisschema; code to provide data connectors that allow structured dataanalysis tools to access the structured analysis schema.

In one aspect of the invention, the code to extract includes code toparse the unstructured data and associate the data source with theparsed unstructured data. In another aspect of the invention,transformation tool extracts individual pieces of data and performs textand/or data processing activities. In another aspect of the invention,the text and data processing activities include: determining the topicof a section of text, extracting a section of text from a wholedocument, matching names, or matching addresses. In another aspect ofthe invention, the structured data tools include business intelligence,statistical analysis, data visualization and mapping, or data mining. Inanother aspect of the invention, the source of unstructured dataincludes email, word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentationmaterials, PDF files, web pages, news/media reports, case files,transcriptions, file servers, web servers, enterprise content,enterprise search tool repositories, intranets, knowledge managementsystems, or document management systems. In another aspect of theinvention, the transformation tool includes: (i) entity, concept andrelationship tagging and extraction tools, (ii) categorization and topicextraction tools, (iii) data matching tools or, (iv) customtransformations.

Another embodiment the present invention provides an extraction servicefor extracting unstructured data from a plurality of unstructured datasources and a plurality of formats comprising a plurality of APIs tointerface with the plurality of unstructured data sources; and a singleinternal API that interfaces with a plurality of software componentsthat allow structured data analysis tools to operate on unstructureddata.

In one aspect of the invention, the plurality of unstructured datasources includes email, word processing documents, spreadsheets,presentation materials, PDF files, web pages, news/media reports, casefiles, transcriptions, file servers, web servers, enterprise content,enterprise search tool repositories, intranets, knowledge managementsystems, and document management systems.

Another embodiment the present invention provides a transformationconnector comprising code capable of understanding the format of dataprovided by a transformation tool; and code to convert the data providedby a transformation tool to a data format that maps to a data captureschema, the data capture schema comprising; a table to store dataextracted from a plurality of source documents having unstructured data;and a table to store information about the extracted data, wherein theplurality of documents are assigned a unique key that identifies thedocument throughout a software system allowing (i) cross-analysis, (ii)linking of results for further analysis, (iii) drill-down fromanalytical reports back to the source documents, or (iv) drill-down fromanalytical reports back to transformation information stored in theschema.

In one aspect of the invention, the transformation tool includes: (i)entity, concept and relationship tagging and extraction tools, (ii)categorization and topic extraction tools, (iii) data matching tools or,(iv) custom transformations. In another aspect of the invention, thecode to convert the data comprises at least one XSL transform.

Another embodiment the present invention provides a core servercomprising code to allow parallel processing of unstructured data on acontinuous real-time basis, wherein the code is adapted to configureunstructured source extractors and treat them as black boxes in a dataworkflow; the code is adapted to extract unstructured text from aplurality of data sources and source systems, the extracted unstructuredtext available for input for further processing; the code is adapted toconfigure end-to-end data flow from the plurality of data sourcesthrough one or more transformation components into a capture schema andinto an analysis schema for analysis by structured data analysis tools;the code is adapted to retain a single key for each data source, the keybeing associated with data generated by the transformation components;and the code is adapted to store all extracted unstructured text,metadata and transformation data in a single schema.

In one aspect of the invention, the code is adapted to use a drag anddrop data editor.

Another embodiment the present invention provides a structured dataconnector that allows structured data analysis tools to analyze data inan analysis schema comprising ODBC code; JDBC code; and code topre-populate metadata of the structured data analysis tools with tables,columns, attributes, data and metrics from an analysis schema withoutperforming tool customization or application specific setup.

In one aspect of the invention, the structured data connector furthercomprises pre-built reports, graphs and dashboards. In another aspect ofthe invention, the structured data connector further comprises embeddedhyperlinks that allow drill-through to underlying data sources. Inanother aspect of the invention, the hyperlinks include a document ID,entity ID, or relationship ID from the analysis schema. In anotheraspect of the invention, the structured data connector further comprisesa source highlighter, the source highlighter adapted to access a captureschema and retrieve a source document or a section of a source document.In another aspect of the invention, the source highlighter is adapted toretrieve start and end character positions, and to scroll down andhighlight a relevant sentence in a retrieved source document or in aretrieved section of a source document.

Additional features, advantages, and embodiments of the invention may beset forth or apparent from consideration of the following detaileddescription, drawings, and claims. Moreover, it is to be understood thatboth the foregoing summary of the invention and the following detaileddescription are exemplary and intended to provide further explanationwithout limiting the scope of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate preferred embodiments of theinvention and together with the detail description serve to explain theprinciples of the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the system overview of an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the system architecture of anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the process steps basedupon the system of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a capture schema of an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an analysis schema of an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 6 is a screen capture of a report generated by an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 7 is another screen capture of a report generated by an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 8 is another screen capture of a report generated by an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 9 is another screen capture of a report generated by an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 10 is a screen capture illustrating a feature of one embodiment ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is directed to a middleware software system tomake unstructured data available to structured data analysis tools. Inone aspect of the invention, the middleware software system can be usedin combination with structured data analysis tools and methods toperform structured data analysis using both structured and unstructureddata. The invention can read data from a wide variety of unstructuredsources. This data may then be transformed with commercial datatransformation products that may, for example, extract individual piecesof data and determine relationships between the extracted data. Thetransformed data and relationships are preferably stored in a captureschema, discussed in more detail below. The transformed data andrelationships may be then passed through an extraction/transform/load(ETL) layer that extracts and preferably loads the data andrelationships in a structured analysis schema, also discussed in moredetail below. Structured connectors according to one embodiment of theinvention provide structured data analysis tools access to thestructured analysis schema.

The present invention enables analysis of unstructured data that is notpossible with existing data analysis tools. In particular, the presentinvention allows, inter alia, (i) multi-dimensional analysis, (ii)time-series analysis, (iii) ranking analysis, (iv) market-basketanalysis and, (v) anomaly analysis. Multi-dimensional analysis allowsthe user to filter and group unstructured data. It also allows drilldown into dimensions and the ability to drill across to otherdimensions. Time-series analysis allows the user to analyze the genesisof concepts and organizations over time and to analyze how things haveincreased or decreased over time. Ranking analysis allows the user torank and order data to determine the highest performing or lowestperforming thing being evaluated. It also allows the user to focusanalysis on the most critical items. Market-basket analysis allows theuser to determine what items or things go with other items or things. Italso can allow the user to find unexpected relationships between items.Anomaly analysis allows the user to determine if new events fithistorical profiles or it can be used to analyze an unexpected absenceor disappearance.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic of a system overview of one embodiment ofthe invention. As can be seen from the figure, this embodimentconstitutes middleware software system 100. That is, this embodimentallows unstructured data 210 to be accessed and used by structured datatools 230. With this embodiment of the invention, business can use theirexisting structured data tools 230 to analyze essentially all of theirvarious sources of unstructured data, resulting in a more robustanalytic capability.

The unstructured data 210 that can be read by this embodiment of theinvention includes, but is not limited to, emails, Microsoft Office™documents, Adobe PDF files, text in CRM and ERP applications, web pages,news, media reports, case files, and transcriptions. Sources ofunstructured data, include, but are not limited to, (i) file servers;(ii) web servers; (ii) enterprise, content, management, and intranetportals; (iii) enterprise search tool repositories; (iv) knowledgemanagement systems; and (v) Documentum™ and other document managementsystems. The structured data tools 230, include but are not limited to,business intelligence tools, statistical analysis tools, datavisualization and mapping tools, and data mining tools. Additionally,custom structured data and analysis tools 230 may be developed andeasily integrated with this embodiment of the invention.

The middleware software system 100 of the present embodiment of theinvention may also be adapted to access transformation components 220capable of parsing the unstructured data 210. The transformationcomponents 220, can for example, be used to extract entity andrelationship information from the unstructured data 210. Transformationcomponents 220, include but are not limited to: (i) entity, concept andrelationship tagging and extraction tools; (ii) categorization and topicextraction tools, (iii) data matching tools, and (iv) customtransformers.

A preferred embodiment of the complete system architecture of middlewaresoftware system 100 is illustrated in FIG. 2. This embodiment includesextraction connectors 101 and extraction services 102 for accessing theunstructured data 210. It also includes a capture schema 103 that holdsall of the unstructured data 210. This embodiment further includes acore server 104 that coordinates the processing of data, unstructured210 and structured, throughout the middleware software system 100. Thisembodiment also includes transformation services 105 and transformationconnectors 106 that handle passing unstructured data 210 to and from thetransformation components 220. Additionally, the middleware softwaresystem 100 includes an extraction/transform/load layer 107 in which theunstructured data 210 is structured and then written into a structuredanalysis schema 108. Web service 109 and structured analysis connectors110 provide structured data tools 230 access to the data in the analysisschema 108.

This embodiment will now be described with reference to the flow diagramillustrated in FIG. 3. In the method of the illustrated embodiment,unstructured data 210 is accessed by the extraction services 102 throughthe extraction connectors 101. The extraction connectors 101 parse theunstructured data 210 while also associating the source document withthe unstructured data. The parsed unstructured data is sent to thecapture schema 103 and then preferably sent to one or more commercial,open source, or custom developed transformation components 220 capableof extracting individual pieces of data from unstructured text,determining the topic of a section, extracting a section of text from awhole document, matching names and addresses, and other text and dataprocessing activities. The unstructured data 210 is sent to the one ormore commercial, open source, or custom-developed transformationcomponents 220 via the transformation service 105 and the transformationconnectors 106. The extracted data may then be added to data alreadypresent in the capture schema 103. The data in the capture schema 103may then be processed by the extraction/transform/load layer 107. Theextraction/transform/load layer 107 structures the data and then storesit in the analysis schema 108. Data from the analysis schema 108 maythen be passed through the structured analysis connectors 110 to one ormore commercial structured data analysis tools 230. The core server 111manages and coordinates this entire data flow process and marshals thedata and associated and generated metadata all the way from the varioussources of data all the way through the various transformationcomponents 220 to the schemas 103, 108 and to the analysis tools 230.

The middleware software system 100 of the present embodiment enablesstructured data analysis tools 230 to analyze unstructured data 210along with structured data. It is composed of several software modules,each of which includes features that distinguish the middleware softwaresystem 100 from existing software tools used for analyzing unstructureddata 210.

The extraction services 102, for example, use a single applicationprogram interface (API) that interfaces with the various sources ofunstructured data. The API can be used to access and extract documenttext and metadata, such as author, date, size, about the documents.Typically, each source of unstructured data 210 has its own API. Priorart tools that interfaced with multiple sources of unstructured data 210commonly had a corresponding API for each source of data. In contrast,the single API of the extraction services 102 of the present inventioncan interface with numerous sources of unstructured data including (i)file servers; (ii) web servers; (ii) enterprise, content, management,and intranet portals; (iii) enterprise search tool repositories; (iv)knowledge management systems; and (v) Documentum™. Additionally, thesingle API of the extraction services 102 can interface with scanned andOCRed (optical character recognition) paper files. Preferably, thesingle API can interface with all of the internal modules of themiddleware software system 100 as well as the various structured dataanalysis tools 230. This allows the sources to be treated as a “blackbox” by the rest of the middleware software system 100 components.

The extraction connectors 101 process text, data, and metadata that arereturned from the unstructured source systems 230 as a result of therequests from the extraction services 102. Additionally, the extractionconnectors 101 load the results into the capture schema 103. Theextraction connectors 101 convert the various outputs from the variousunstructured source systems into a consistent schema and format forloading into the capture schema 103. Preferably, the extractionconnectors 101 also process the various pieces of metadata that areextracted from the source systems into a common metadata format.Further, a unique index key is assigned to each extracted sourcedocument 210, which allows it to be consistently tracked as it movesthrough the rest of the middleware software system 100. This key, andthe associated metadata stored regarding the source location of thetext, also provides the ability to link back to the original text whendesired during the course of analysis. No currently available softwarecan take unstructured data 210 from a variety of sources and put theminto a consistent schema, nor process various pieces of metadata thatare extracted from multiple source systems into a common metadataformat.

The transformation services 105 manage the process of taking thecollected unstructured data 210 and passing it through one or morecustom, open source, or commercial transformation components 220. Thetransformation components 220 provide a variety of value-added datatransformation, data extraction, and data matching activities. Theresults of one or more transformations may serve as an input todownstream transformations. Further, the transformation services 105 maybe run by the core server 104 in a coordinated workflow process. Similarto the extraction services 102, the transformation services 105 providea common API to a wide variety of custom, open source, and commercialunstructured data transformation technologies, while serving a as “blackbox” abstraction to the rest of the middleware software system 100.

The transformation connectors 106 process the output of the varioustransformation components 220 and convert the output into a consistentformat that then may be loaded into the capture schema 103. It maps thewidely variant output from a wide variety of unstructured and structuresdata transformation components 220 into a common consistent format,while preferably also retaining complete metadata and links back to theoriginal source data. This allows tracability from the end user'sanalysis back through the transformations that took place and from thereback to the original source of the unstructured data 210.

The transformation connectors 106 are preferably engineered tounderstand the format of data that is provided by the supported datatransformation tools 220. For example, a connector for the GATE textprocessing system may be provided. The transformation connectors 106 maybe designed to take as input the specific XML structure that is outputby the GATE tool. The connector then uses coded logic and XSL transformsto covert this specific XML from, in this example, the GATE tool into aconsistent transformation XML format. This format represents an XML datalayout that closely maps to the data format of the capture schema 103.The transformation connectors 106 then load the consistenttransformation XML into the capture schema 103 using standard dataloading procedures.

The middleware software system 100 also includes a section and headerextractor (not shown). This is a custom transformation tool 220 thattakes for an input a text document and a set of extraction rules andinstructions. Preferably, the section and header extractor outputs anyand all document headers, as well as a specific section or sections fromthe document as described by the input rules. Unlike prior art tools foranalyzing unstructured data 210, the section and header extractorprovides a rules-based approach to locate and extract document headersas well as sections from unstructured texts that may or may not provideany internal section headings, tags, or other indications as to whereone section ends and another begins.

The header extractor can look for specific document headers and extractthe data of the headers. Further, it stores the header data in thecapture schema 103. As an example, SEC filings include headers such as“filed as of date”, “effectiveness date”, “central index key”, and “SICcode.” These headers can be extracted by the header extractor and put inthe capture schema 103.

The section extractor can extract a specific section or a series ofspecific sections from a document based on a sophisticated set of rules.These rules may include:

-   -   1. Preprocessing, including optional removal of HTML or other        tags and special character, and other specific character        conversions (example, convert “AAA” to “BBB” throughout document        before further extraction processing). Also include specific        removals, for example remove strings matching “CCC” or between        “DDD” and “EEE” from all parts of the document before further        processing.    -   2. Section Start Rules: Match document text to a set of provided        character strings, with the following optional parameters:        -   a. Search from the top of the document down, or from the            bottom of the document up        -   b. Search for the first match of any string of the set, or            first search the whole document for the first string in the            set, and if not found move to the next string        -   c. Search in a case-sensitive manner or case-insensitive            manner        -   d. Rules regarding what to do if start string not found (for            example, skip document, extract no section, or treat whole            document as if it was the desired section)    -   3. Section End Rules: essentially the same as the Section Start        rules, with the additional parameters of:        -   a. Search from the section start point, or from the start of            the document, or from the end of the document        -   b. Search up or down from the start point        -   c. Optional parameter to stop section extraction after a            certain number of characters, and direction to go from start            point before stopping (up or down).        -   d. Rules regarding what to do if end point is not found (for            example, skip document, extract no section, save rest of            document starting at the start point, or extract a certain            number of characters from the start point).

The middleware software system 100 also includes a proximity transformer(not shown). This is a custom transformation tool 220 that furthertransforms the results of other transformation tools 220. Thistransformation tool 220 looks for events, entities, or relationshipsthat are closest and/or within a certain distance (based on number ofwords, sentences, sections, paragraphs, or character positions) fromother entities, events, or relationships. Typically, it is configured tolook for specific types of things that are close to other specific typesof things. For example, it can be used to look for the closest personname and dollar amount to a phrase describing the issuance of a loan.Unlike prior art tools for analyzing unstructured data 210, theproximity transformer can associate data elements together based oninput rules, types of elements, and their proximity to one another inunstructured text.

In particular, the proximity transformer may be configured to look for acertain types of entity or relationship (based on entries in the entityand relationship hierarchy) entries in the analysis schema 108.Preferably, for each matching entity or relationship that is found, itthen looks for the closest (by character position, number of words,number of sentences, number of paragraphs, or number of sections)instance of a second (and optionally third, fourth, etc.) specific typeof entity. If the proper collection of relationship and entity types arelocated with a certain optional distance limit (preferably, based oncharacter positions or other criteria listed above), and optionallywithin a certain direction from the first entity or relationship (up ordown), then a new relationship is added to the analysis schema 108 toindicate the newly located relationship. The relationship is associatedwith its related entities and the roles that these entities play.

For example, the proximity transformer can be used to locate instancesof loans described in the source documents, and to locate the borrower,lender, dates, and dollar amount of loans. In this example, theproximity transformed could first look for entries in an entity table inthe analysis schema 108 that are related to the hierarchy element“loan”. Then the transformer could search for the closest company entityand assign that company as the lender. Then it could locate the nearestperson, and assign that person as the borrower. It could than locate thenearest entity of hierarchy type “financial->currency” and assign thatto be the amount of the loan. Preferably, a new relationship would beentered into the relationship table to represent this loan and itsassociated related entities and the role that they play. Additionally,more sophisticated rule sets can be used in conjunction with proximityanalysis in order to increase the quality of found relationships andassigned entity roles.

The middleware software system 100 also includes a table parser (notshown). The table parser is a custom transformation tool 220 that takesas an input a table of data (which may have been extracted from adocument by using the section extractor) represented in textual form(either with markup tags such as HTML or in plain-text) and extracts thecolumn headers, row headers, data points, and data multipliers (such as“numbers in thousands”) from the table. Unlike prior art tools foranalyzing unstructured data 210, the table parser can preferably takeany type of text table that is readable by a human and can convert thetable into a structured rows, columns, cells, headers, and multiplierrepresentation that can then be used for further structured analysis.Each input text table can vary from the next, and the table parser canextract data without being specifically pre-configured for each possibleinput table format. The table parser can adapt dynamically to any tableformat and any combination of columns and rows. It operates usingalgorithms designed to analyze a table as a human would visually, forexample by distinguishing columns based on their placement to oneanother and the “whitespace” between them.

The detection of a table in document can be performed with sectionextractor, described above. Properly configured, the section extractoris capable of finding and segregating tables from surrounding text.

Once the table is extracted from the text, it then may be parsed by thetable parser. Preferably, the first part of the algorithm breaks up thetable into rows and columns and represents the table in a 2-dimensionarray. For tables represented in a markup language such as HTML, thismay be done by analyzing the markup tags that delineate the table intorows and columns. Processing is then done to combine table cells thatare marked as separate but only for visual formatting purposes.

For tables represented in plain-text without markup tags that aredisplayed in a fixed-width font such Courier, an algorithm is used thatmimics how a human would visually identify columns based on thepercentage of vertical white space in any vertical column. Columns thatcontain a large percentage of white space are identified as separatingthe table columns. Based on the column analysis, rows and columns areextracted and represented in a 2-dimensional array.

The 2-dimensional array, created either from a table with HTML or othermarkup, or from a plain-text table, may then be processed further toidentify column headers, numerical order of magnitude indicators, androw headers. Column headers can be identified based on their position ontop of columns that mainly contain numerical values. Order of magnitudeindicators can be extracted from the top portion of the table andgenerally are worded as “numbers in thousands”, or “numbers inmillions”. These conversion factors are then applied to the onwardprocessing of the table. Preferably, row headers are located by lookingfor table rows that have a label on the left-side of the table but donot have corresponding numerical values, or that have summary values inthe columns. Row headers can be differentiated from multi-line rowlabels by analyzing the indentation of the potential header and therow(s) below. The result of this processing is a data array containingrow labels, corresponding headers, column headers, and correspondingnumerical values.

This data, once extracted from a table, may then be stored in thecapture schema 103 in a normalized data table that is capable of storingdata extracted from any arbitrary table format. That data may then beloaded into the analysis schema 108 and can be analyzed along with anyother structured and unstructured 210 data.

Capture schema 103 is preferably a database schema. That is, having apre-designed layout of data tables and the relationship between thetables. Preferably, the capture schema 108 is specially designed toserve as a repository for data captured by the extraction connectors 101and also to hold the results of the transformation connectors 106.Capture schema 108 is designed in an application-independent manner sothat it can preferably hold any type of source unstructured data 210,extracted headers and sections, and the results of transformationcomponents 220. It also can preferably hold entities and relationships,as well as any data extracted from text tables within unstructuredtexts. The capture schema 103 can suit the needs of any type ofunstructured data capture and transformation tool 220 without beingcustom-designed for each application.

Additionally, the capture schema 103 is designed to capture and recordthe output from various types of text transformation tools 220, such asentity extraction, relationship extraction, categorization, and datamatching tools. The capture schema 103 preferably has a general-purposestructure to accommodate the various outputs from a variety of type oftext analysis tools from a variety of vendors, open source communities,or from custom application development projects.

The tables in the capture schema 103 include a table to storeinformation about extracted entities, such as people, places, companies,dates, times, dollar amounts, etc. The entities are also associated withattributes, such as their language of origin or temporal qualities.Further, the capture schema 103 contains data relating to entityoccurrences, which are the actual locations of the entities as found inthe source documents. There may be multiple occurrences of the sameentity in a single document. The capture schema 103 retains informationabout entities, entity occurrences, and the relationships between theseitems, as well as the associated attributes that may be associated withentities and entity occurrences.

The capture schema 103 also contains information on relationships.Relationships are associations between entities, or events that involveentities. Similar to entities, relationships also have associatedrelationship attributes and occurrences that are all captured by thecapture schema 103. Additionally, the capture schema 103 contains amapping table between relationships and the related entities, masterentities, and entity occurrences, including information on the role thatthe related entities play in the association or event.

The capture schema 103 also contains information about documents in themiddleware software system 100, and the relationships between thedocuments to the entities and relationships that are contained withinthem. Documents may have associated attributes (such as source, author,date, time, language, etc.), and may be grouped together in folders andbe grouped by the source of the document. The documents are all assigneda unique key which can be used to identify the document and data derivedfrom the document throughout the entire system and can be used toreference back to the original document in the original source. Thebinary and character text of the document can also be stored in thecapture schema 103 as a CLOB and/or BLOB object. Sections of thedocument, if extracted by the section extractor, are also stored in thecapture schema 103 and related to the documents that they were extractedfrom.

Information from categorization tools may also be included in thecapture schema 103. Such data elements include topics and categories ofdocuments and sections of documents. This data is linked to the otherdata such as entities and relationships through a series ofcross-reference tables.

The capture schema is designed to consolidate the output from a varietyof data analysis technologies in a central repository while retaining aconsistent key to allow for cross-analysis and linking of results forfurther analysis. The consistent key also allows for drill-down fromanalytical reports back to source documents and to the details of thetransformations that led to each data element being present in theschema.

For example, from a report that shows the average number of loans toexecutives disclosed in a company's SEC filings for an entire industry,an analyst could drill down to the number of loans for each company inthe industry, then to the individual loans disclosed in each filing,then to the details of a particular loan event, then drill all the waydown to the text in the filing that disclosed the loan. The textualsource of the event is generally shown to the user within the context ofthe original source document, with the appropriate sentence(s) orsection(s) highlighted.

This drill-down is enabled by several unique features of the system. Thehierarchies present in the analysis schema, discussed in more detailbelow, can be traversed step-by-step along a variety of dimensionspresent in the schema to drill down to the precise set of informationdesired. From there, the details of the underlying relationships,events, or entities can be displayed from the user as they are alsopresent in the analysis schema.

From there, when an analyst desired to view the underlying sourcematerial, the source document is retrieved either from the capture oranalysis schema, if stored there, or from the original source locationvia a URL or other type of pointer. The relevant section, sentence,phrase, or word(s) can then be highlighted based on the starting andending positions stored in the analysis schema that represent thelocation(s) that the relevant entities or relationships were extractedfrom originally.

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the capture schema 103. Each ofthe boxes in the schematic diagram represents a component of the captureschema 103. These content and function of these components is asfollows.

Document 401: This is a data table that preferably contains details oneach document, including the document title, URL or other link back tothe source, the source text itself (optionally stored), the documentsize, language, initial processing characteristics, link to the folderor other logical corpus grouping containing the document, and a uniquedocument key that is consistently used to refer to the documentthroughout the system. The term “document” in this system represents anydistinct piece of text, which may or may not resemble a traditionalpaper document. For example a memo field value extracted from a CRMsystem would also be referred to as a distinct document by the system.Given this abstraction, a document could be very small or very large orsomewhere in between.

Document Attributes 402: Preferably contains a mapping of each documentto the extended properties or attributes of the document. Examples ofdocument attributes include, but are not limited to, headers extractedfrom documents and their corresponding values, or other metadata that isextracted along with the document such as author(s), title, subtitle,copyright, publishers, etc.

Attributes 403: Preferably, contains a master lookup table of the typesof attributes stored in the system, so that attributes representing thesame type of data can be represented by the same attribute ID to allowfor consistent analysis and loading of attribute data.

Keywords 404: Preferably contains a master lookup table of all keywordsin all documents. A consistent key is assigned to each unique keyword toallow for consistent data loading and for cross-analysis of keywordsacross documents, sections of documents, and collections of documents.

Keyword Occurrence 405: Preferably, contains a mapping to theoccurrences of keywords to the documents that contain the keywords.Preferably, it includes one entry for each keyword occurrence in eachdocument. It also preferably includes the start and end position(represented by character count from start of document) of theoccurrence of the keyword. Preferably, it also includes informationrelating to the extraction process that found the keyword occurrence.

Entity 406: Preferably contains one entry for each unique entity that ismentioned in each document. An entity generally represents a noun phrasethat represents a physical or abstract object or concept. Entities aregenerally found as nouns in sentences. Example of entities include butare not limited to people, companies, buildings, cities, countries,physical objects, contracts, agreements, dates, times, various types ofnumbers including currency values, and other concepts.

Entity Attributes 407: Preferably contains attributes related to eachentity. Attributes may be any arbitrary piece of metadata or otherinformation that is related to an entity, and may include metadata froman entity extraction tool such as the confidence level associated withthe extraction of the entity from a piece of text. Entity attributes mayalso include grouping or ontological information that is useful in thelater creation of entity hierarchies during the creation of the analysisschema.

Entity Occurrence 408: Preferably contains one entry for each time anentity is mentioned in a document. It may also include the start and endposition of the entity occurrence, as well as details of the extractionprocess that found the occurrence.

Entity Occurrence Attributes 409: Preferably contains arbitraryadditional metadata relating to the entity occurrence. These attributesare typically similar and in some cases may be the same as theinformation in the Entity Attributes table, but may also containattributes that are unique to a particular occurrence of an entity.

Relationship 410: Preferably contains details on relationships extractedfrom documents. A relationship represents a link between entities or anevent involving entities. An example of a relationship would be“works-for,” in which an entity of type person is found to work for anentity of type company, in a certain capacity such as “President.” Thisdata structure represents unique relationships on a per-document basis.

Relationship Attributes 411: Preferably contains additional details ofthe extracted relationships, such as the confidence level of theextracted relationship, ontological attributes of the relationship, orother attributes at the relationship level.

Relationship Occurrence 412: Preferably contains information on eachoccurrence of text that references a certain relationship. For example,if a certain “works-for” relationship if referenced several times in acertain document, this table would contain one entry for each time therelationship is referenced. This table also may contain information onthe exact start and end character position of where the relationshipinstance was found in the document.

Relationship Occurrence Attributes 413: Preferably contains details ofattribute at the relationship occurrence level. May contain similarinformation to the Relationship Attributes table.

Relationship/Entity Xref 414: Preferably contains a cross-referencetable that links the entities to the relationships that involve them.Preferably, this table exists both at the relationship and therelationship occurrence levels. It also may provide a link to the rolethat each entity plays in a certain relationship.

Relationship/Entity Roles 415: Preferably contains a master index of thevarious types of roles that are played by entities in variousrelationships. By providing for a master relationship role key, thisallows relationship roles and the entities that play those roles to bematched across various documents and across collections of documents.

Document Folder 416: Preferably groups documents into folders. Foldersare abstract concepts that can group documents and other folderstogether, and may or may not represent a folder structure that waspresent in the original source of the documents.

Concept/Topic 417: Preferably contains concepts or topics referred to indocuments or assigned to documents by concept and topic detection tools.May also contain topics and concepts at the section, paragraph, orsentence level if concept and topic detection is performed at the lowersub-document level.

Concept/Topic Occurrence 418: Preferably contains details of exactlywhere certain topics or concepts were detected within a document orsub-component of a document. It may also include start and end positionwithin the text of the concept or topic occurrence.

Section 419: Preferably contains details on sections of documents.Sections may be designated in the extracted source document, or may bederived by the system's section extractor. Preferably, this table storesdetails on the sections, including the start and end position, andoptionally stores the section text itself.

Paragraph 420: Preferably contains details on paragraphs within adocument or within a section of a document. It preferably contains startand end position, and optionally contains the text of the paragraphitself.

Sentence 421: Preferably contains details on sentences within a documentor within a section of a document. Preferably, it also contains startand end position, and optionally contains the text of the sentenceitself.

The analysis schema 108 is similar to the capture schema 103, except itis preferably designed to allow for analysis by commercially-availablestructured data analysis tools 230 such as business intelligence, datamining, link analysis, mapping, visualization, reporting, andstatistical tools. The analysis schema 108 provides a data schema thatcan be use to perform a wide range of differing types of analysis for awide variety of applications based on data extracted from unstructuredtext without needing to be custom-designed for each analyticalapplication, analysis tool, or each type of input data or appliedtransformation.

The data in the analysis schema 108 resembles the data in the captureschema 103, however it extends and transforms the data in several waysin order to structure and prepare the data for access and analysis bystructured data analysis tools 230. In the analysis schema 108, theentities are preferably also grouped into master entities. The masterentities group entities that appear in multiple documents that are thesame in the real world. Also, master entities group together entitiesthat may be spelled differently or have multiple names in variousdocuments or sources into one master entity since they represent thesame actually entity in the real world. For example, the terrorist groupHamas and the Islamic Resistance Movement may be grouped together asthey represent the same actual group.

The analysis schema 108 can also group entities that are associated witha hierarchy. For example “George W. Bush” might be associated with theperson->government->USA->federal->executive node of a hierarchy. Similarto entities, relationships also have associated hierarchies that alsomay reside in the analysis schema 108.

In the analysis schema 108, entities that represent dates and numericamounts may be processed so that the date and/or numeric data is storedseparately in specific table columns in the appropriate data types.Typically, this processing requires analysis of the text description ofthe entity and the extraction and processing of the text into standarddate and numeric values.

Additionally, the analysis schema 108 also has the capability to beextended in order to include existing or other structured data, so thatit can be cleanly tied to the rest of the data and analyzed together inone consistent schema.

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of the analysis schema 108. Each ofthe boxes in the schematic diagram represents a component of theanalysis schema 108. These content and function of these components isas follows.

The boxes labeled 501 through 521 correspond to boxes 401 through 421 ofthe capture schema 103, having substantially similar structure andperforming substantially similar functions.

Master Entity 522: Preferably contains a unified ID that represents anentity that appears across multiple documents, and links to theunderlying entities and entities that occur within individual documents.For example, a master entity of “United States of America” would referto the country of the same name. The master entity would consolidate allmentions of the country in all documents, including mentions that usealternative expressions of the country's name such as “United States”,“USA”, “U.S. of A”, etc. This consolidated master entity allows thisentity to be analyzed across documents as a single entity. The actualconsolidation is preferably performed during the analytical ETL processusing matching algorithms or through the use of external data matchingtechnologies via a transformation connector 106.

Entity Hierarchy 523: Preferably, places entities into a hierarchy basedon an ontology of how entities relate to other entities and how they canbe grouped together. For example, a hierarchy may group normal peopleinto a “thing->physical->animate->person->civilian” node of a hierarchy.By associating entities into hierarchies, the hierarchies can be used togroup entities together into buckets that can then be used for analysisat various levels.

Master Entity Hierarchy 524: preferably, identical to the entityhierarchy, except at the master entity level. Both hierarchies areuseful, as some types of analysis are best performed at the masterentity level, and others at the entity level.

Master Relationship 525: Preferably, similar to master entity, exceptgroups relationships into common relationships that are expressed acrossa group of documents. For example, the fact that George Washington was aformer president of the United States may be a relationship that isdisclosed in a variety of documents across a document collection. Themaster relationship would establish this relationship, and would thenlink to the sub-relationships that are expressed in individualdocuments.

Relationship Hierarchy 526: Preferably, similar to the entity hierarchy,except representing relationships and events. For example, a car bombingevent may be categorized into a hierarchy known as“event-physical-violent-attack-bombing-car_bombing.” The analysis ofvarious types of relationships and events across a hierarchy can provideinteresting insights into what types of events are discussed in a set ofdocuments, or are taking place in the world.

Master Relationship Hierarchy 527: Preferably, similar to theRelationship Hierarchy, except involving Master Relationships. These areuseful as in some cases it is useful to analyze distinct relationshipsor events that may be referenced in multiple sources, and in other casesit may be interesting to analyze each individual reference to an eventor the frequency of mentions of one event versus another.

Keyword Hierarchy 528: Preferably, groups keywords into hierarchies.These hierarchies can then be used to group data together for analysis.

Attribute Hierarchy 529: Preferably groups attributes together intohierarchies. These hierarchies can then be used to group documentstogether based on their various attributes for analysis, or to selectcertain types of documents for inclusion or exclusion from certainanalyses.

Document Folder Hierarchy 530: Preferably, groups folders of documentsinto higher level folders in a recursive manner allowing for unlimitednumbers of folder levels. These folders can be used to separatecollections documents into distinct buckets that can be analyzedseparately or in combination as required by the analytical application.

Document Source 531: Preferably contains a cross-reference between eachdocument and the source of the document. The source may be a certainoperational or document management system, or may represent a newsorganization or other type of external content source.

Document Source Hierarchy 532: Preferably, groups document sources intocategories. For example internal documents may be represented by aninternal document hierarchy, and documents acquired from a news feed maybe in a separate hierarchy based on type of news source and/or thegeographic location of the source of the document.

Document Source Attributes 533: Preferably, contains any additionalattributes relevant to the source of the document. Such attributes maybe trustworthiness of the source, any political connections of thesource, location of the source, or other arbitrary data points relatingto the source of the documents.

Concept/Topic Hierarchy 534: Preferably, contains a hierarchy ofconcepts/topics. As with entities and relationships, concepts and topicsare often interested to analyze within the context of a hierarchy. Forexample documents pertaining to international finance may need to begrouped and analyzed separately from those pertaining to intellectualproperty protection.

Time Dimension 535: Preferably, represents a standard relational timedimension as would be found in a traditional data warehouse. Thisdimension, for example, contains years, months, weeks, quarters, days,day of week, etc. and allows the rest of the data that is stored as datevalues to be analyzed and grouped by higher level date and timeattributes, and also allows for calculations such as grow rather weekover week or year over year. This also allows for period-to-date andthis period vs. last period calculations such as those used in timeseries and growth rate analysis.

Entity (extensions) 506: Preferably, the analysis schema also extendsthe entity table to represent numerical, currency, or date-basedentities in the appropriate data forms for analysis by analytical tools.For example, any entities representing currency would be converted to acurrency data type in the underlying database or data storagerepository.

The extraction/transform/load (ETL) layer 107 provides a mapping andloading routine to migrate data from the capture schema 103 to theanalysis schema 108. The extraction/transform/load layer 107 is uniquedue to the uniqueness of the two general-purpose application-independentschemas that it moves data between. Further, the routines that make upthe extraction/transform/load layer 107 operate in anapplication-independent manner.

The ETL process can preferably contain the following steps:

-   -   Master entity determination and assignment: Matching entities to        corresponding master entities. Often involves matching disparate        spellings to the corresponding master entities.    -   Master relationship determination and assignment: Grouping of        relationships together that represent the same relationships or        events into a single master relationship.    -   Entity Hierarchy & Master Entity Hierarchy creation: creation        and/or maintenance of entities into their corresponding        hierarchical groupings. Similar process for master entities.    -   Relationship Hierarchy & Master Relationship Hierarchy: creation        and/or maintenance of relationships into their corresponding        hierarchical groupings. Similar process for master        relationships.    -   Keyword Hierarchy: creation and/or maintenance of the keyword        hierarchy.    -   Attribute Hierarchy: creation and/or maintenance of the        attribute hierarchy.    -   Concept/Topic Hierarchy: creation and/or maintenance of the        concept/topic hierarchy.    -   Document Folder: creation and/or maintenance of the document        folder hierarchy.    -   Document Source: extraction of document source information from        document attributes into its own data structure.    -   Document Source Attributes: extraction of attributes relating to        document sources into a separate data structure    -   Document Source Hierarchy: creation and/or maintenance of the        document source hierarchy.    -   Time Dimension: creation of the standard system time dimension        for time-series analysis.    -   Entity Extensions: identification of date and numeric types of        entities and conversion of date and numeric values into        corresponding native data types where appropriate.    -   Data de-duplication: identification and (optional) removal of        duplicate source documents to avoid double-counting.

The core server 104 coordinates the execution of the various componentsof the middleware software system 100 and the movement of data betweenthe components. It is designed in a multi-threaded, grid-friendlydistributed manner to allow for the parallel processing of extremelylarge amounts of data through the system on a continuous real-timehigh-throughput basis. It is the only data processing server designed toperform these types of data movements and transformation based onunstructured data sources.

The features of the core server 104 can include:

-   -   The ability to configure unstructured source extractors and        treat them as black boxes in the data workflows    -   The ability to extract unstructured data 210 from multiple        disparate sources and source systems and use the extracted        information as input for further processing    -   The ability to automatically route the unstructured data 210        through a series of unstructured transformation tools 220, both        custom-designed and off-the-shelf    -   The ability to configure a end-to-end data flow from sources        through one or more transformation tools 220, into a capture        schema 103 and then into an analysis schema 108 for analysis by        structured analysis tools 230    -   The ability to retain a single key for each source document as        it moves through the middleware software system 100 and as        value-added information output from transformation tools 220 is        added to the capture schema 103    -   The storage of all extracted unstructured data 210 as well as        all metadata and value-added extracted transformation results        into a single capture schema 103    -   The ability to use a drag & drop data flow editor to design,        edit, execute, and monitor unstructured data 210 flows through        transformation tools 220 and into an analysis schema 108

The provider web service 109 provides a gateway for structured analysistools 230 to access and analyze the data contained in the analysisschema 230. It is designed so that structured analysis tools 230 canaccess the analysis schema 108 using a standard web services approach.In this manner, the structured analysis tools 230 can use a web servicesinterface to analyze the results of transformations applied tounstructured data 210 and can join this data to other existingstructured data that may, for example, reside in a data warehouse. Byallowing the analysis of structured data and unstructured data 210together, new insights and findings can be found that would not bepossible from structured data alone.

The structured connectors 110 allow structured data analysis tools 230to analyze the data present in the analysis schema 108. While this maysometimes be performed through common interfaces such as ODBC or JDBC,the structured connectors 110 preferably also include the capability topre-populate the metadata of the structured analysis tool 230 withtables, columns, attributes, facts, and metrics helpful to immediatelybegin analyzing the data present in the analysis schema 108 withoutperforming tool customization or any application-specific setup.Preferably, the structured connectors 110 also provide the ability todrill-through to the original unstructured source document, and alsoprovide the ability to view the path that the data took through thesystem and the transformations that were applied to any piece of data.Preferably, this allows the ability for an analyst to completelyunderstand the genesis of any result that they see in the structuredanalysis tool 230, to know exactly where the data came from and how itwas calculated, and to be able to drill all the way back to the originaldocument or documents to confirm and validate any element of theresulting structured analysis.

Typically, metadata can be pre-populated for supported structuredanalysis tools 230. Preferably, middleware software system 100 includesa pre-configured project for each analysis tool to understand thetables, columns, and joins that are present in the analysis schema 108.Further, the tables, columns, and joins may be mapped to the businessattributes, dimensions, facts, and measures that they represent.Preferably, analytical objects such as reports, graphs, and dashboardsare also pre-built to allow out-of-the box analysis of data in supportedstructured analysis tools 230.

Drill-through to the underlying unstructured source data 210 ispreferably accomplished through embedded hyperlinks that point to anadditional component, the source highlighter. Preferably, the hyperlinksinclude the document ID, entity ID, or relationship ID from the analysisschema 108. The source highlighter can accesses the capture schema 103and retrieve the document or section of document where the selectedentity or relationship was found. Also the start and end characterposition may be loaded from the capture schema 103. If so, the sourcehighlighter may display the document or section to the user,automatically scrolls down to the location of the relevant sentence, andhighlight it for easy reference by the user.

The Middleware software system 100 also includes a confidence analysiscomponent (not shown). The confidence analysis capability allows usersto not only see and analyze data within structured analysis tools 230,but to also calculate a numeric confidence level for each data elementor aggregate data calculation. Since unstructured data 210 is oftenimprecise, the ability to understand the confidence level of any findingis very useful. The confidence analysis capability joins together manydata points that are captured throughout the flow of data through themiddleware software system 100 to create a weightedstatistically-oriented calculation of the confidence that can beassigned to any point of data. Preferably, this combines the results ofvarious data sources and applied transformations into a singleconfidence score for each system data point, to provide for a qualitylevel context while analyzing data generated by the middleware softwaresystem 100.

The algorithm used to calculate confidence can take into account thefollowing factors when calculating a weighted confidence score for anydata element in the middleware software system 100:

-   -   Confidence score of value provided (if any) by transformation        tools 220 used in the data flow to generate the relevant data        point    -   The number of relationships found in the source document        compared to the size of the source document, compared to the        average number of relationships found per kilobyte or other size        measure of a document. This metric can also be calculated based        on the average number of relationships per kilobyte for        relationships of the same type as the selected relationship.    -   The number of entities found to be associated with the        relationship, compared to the average number of entities for        relationships in the same hierarchy    -   The number of times similar relationships have been found in the        past    -   The number of entities that are grouped together to form a        master entity    -   The number of times the entity occurred in the document compared        to the average number of occurrences for entities in the same        hierarchy, optionally weighted by document size    -   Weighted confidences based on hierarchy of relationship or        entity. Some hierarchies may be more highly trusted than others        and assigned a higher confidence.    -   Other commercially available measures of data extraction        confidence that can be integrated with the system via the        analysis schema 108 and included in confidence calculations.    -   Measures based on the “fullness” of a relationship's attributes.        For example a loan transaction event where detail involving loan        size, payment terms, interest rate, lender, and borrower was all        extracted would have a higher confidence score than a loan        relationship that only identified the lender without the other        attribute factors.    -   Measures based on the confluence of the same finding by multiple        transformation tools. For example if two different entity        extraction tools find the same entity in the same place, this        would instill higher confidence in data and calculations        involving the entity.    -   Measures based on the source of the document. Some sources or        authors may be weighted as higher confidence based on various        factors.    -   Weighted combinations of two or more of the above metrics and/or        various other metrics.

Further, the confidence scores calculated based on factors such as thoseabove can be assigned to individual data rows and data points ofanalysis results and displayed together with the resulting analysis.

The middleware software system 100 also includes an enhanced searchcomponent (not shown). While analysis of the data in the middlewaresoftware system's 100 capture schema 103 can provide for interestinginsights, and represents a paradigm shift from traditional searching ofunstructured information, the middleware software system 100 alsoprovides data and metadata that can be used to improve existing or todrive new search capabilities.

Most searches of unstructured data are based on keywords or conceptsdescribed in individual source documents, and most searches result in alist of documents that meet the search criteria, often ordered byrelevancy.

Middleware software system 100 allows those search results to beextended by the inclusion of additional items in the traditional searchindexing process. These techniques include:

-   -   Indexing the data in the analysis schema. This can be done by        creating “data dump” reports using a reporting tool that create        a list of each entity, topic, or relationship discussed in a        document along with a link back to the source document. This        report can then be run periodically automatically and included        in the indexing routine of a standard search engine. The search        engine can also be optionally enhanced to understand the format        of this report and to rate, rank, and provide the results        accordingly.    -   Analytical reports can be automatically periodically run and        included in the indexing process of a search engine. This allows        a search engine to provide links to analytical reports        interspersed within standard links back to source documents. By        indexing the reports headers, title, and comments, as well as        the actual data that is contained in the report results,        specialized search results can be achieved. For example, a        search for “hamas growth rate” could provide a link back to a        report that includes a metric called “growth rate” and a data        item called “Hamas.”    -   Search engines can be enhanced to index and understand the        metadata contained in the definition of the dimensional model of        the analytical data mart schema, the definitions of the facts,        metrics, and measures, and also take into account the data        contained within the dimensions and measures, and to provide        results accordingly. For example, if a data mart contains a        dimension such as “country”, a dimension called “year”, and a        metric called “population”, a search engine would be able to        construct a report on the fly to answer a question such as        “population USA 2004”, without having previously indexed either        a source document or a report result dataset containing this        information.

The following is an example query that can be run using the system andmethod of the invention. In this example, the user wants to know whichcompanies have had transactions with their own corporate officers thatrequire reporting under SEC rules. This requires the processing andanalysis of approximately 40,000 pages of SEC filings for eachquarter-year's worth of filings. These filings are plain text, that is,unstructured data. Unfortunately for the user, there is no requireduniform method of reporting the desired transactions to the SEC andthus, they may be found under sections with various headings and may beworded in various ways. Using the middleware software system 100 of thepresent invention, the filings are run through a transformation program220 that is instructed to associate the corporate officers to particulartypes of transactions (e.g., loans, leases, purchases & sales, andemployment-related). The associated data is then stored in datastructures that can be analyzed with a business intelligence tool.

The business intelligence software analyzes the data and presents itusing dashboards and reports. For example, the report illustrated inFIG. 6 sorts the companies based on the number of reported transactions,identifying the number of transactions per type of transactions as wellas a statistical comparison of the company against the industry averagenumber of transactions. The reports illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8 focusonly on loan transactions, further identifying the industry groups ofthe individual corporations. This allows the user to determine if aspecific industry commonly engages in a particular type of transactionand whether a specific company is behaving differently from its peers.Because the data is structured and linked to the original document, thebusiness intelligence software can identify the recipients and amountsof the loans, FIG. 9, as well as the source text in the originaldocument, FIG. 10. Further, the user can then click on hyperlinks toseamlessly view the original unstructured source to validate thefindings.

Although the foregoing description is directed to the preferredembodiments of the invention, it is noted that other variations andmodifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and may bemade without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.Moreover, features described in connection with one embodiment of theinvention may be used in conjunction with other embodiments, even if notexplicitly stated above.

1. A method of making unstructured data available to structured datatools comprising: accessing a source of unstructured data; extractingthe unstructured data; writing the extracted unstructured data to acapture schema; sending the unstructured data to a transformation tool;transforming the unstructured data with the transformation tool; writingthe transformed parsed unstructured data in a structured analysisschema; providing data connectors that allow structured data tools toaccess the structured analysis schema.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinextracting includes parsing the unstructured data and associating thedata source with the parsed unstructured data.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the transformation tool extracts individual pieces of data andperforms text and/or data processing activities.
 4. The method of claim3, wherein the text and data processing activities include: determiningthe topic of a section of text, extracting a section of text from awhole document, matching names, or matching addresses.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the structured data tools include businessintelligence, statistical analysis, data visualization and mapping, ordata mining.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the source ofunstructured data includes email, word processing documents,spreadsheets, presentation materials, PDF files, web pages, news/mediareports, case files, transcriptions, file servers, web servers,enterprise content, enterprise search tool repositories, intranets,knowledge management systems, or document management systems.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the transformation tool includes: (i) entity,concept and relationship tagging and extraction tools, (ii)categorization and topic extraction tools, (iii) data matching tools or,(iv) custom transformations.
 8. A system for making unstructured dataavailable to structured data tools comprising: code to access a sourceof unstructured data; code to extract the unstructured data; code towrite the extracted unstructured data to a capture schema; code to sendthe unstructured data to a transformation tool; code to transform theunstructured data with the transformation tool; code to write thetransformed parsed unstructured data in a structured analysis schema;code to provide data connectors that allow structured data tools toaccess the structured analysis schema.
 9. The system of claim 8, whereinthe code to extract includes code to parse the unstructured data andassociate the data source with the parsed unstructured data.
 10. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the transformation tool extracts individualpieces of data and performs text and/or data processing activities. 11.The system of claim 10, wherein the text and data processing activitiesinclude: determining the topic of a section of text, extracting asection of text from a whole document, matching names, or matchingaddresses.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein the structured data toolsinclude business intelligence, statistical analysis, data visualizationand mapping, or data mining.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein thesource of unstructured data includes email, word processing documents,spreadsheets, presentation materials, PDF files, web pages, news/mediareports, case files, transcriptions, file servers, web servers,enterprise content, enterprise search tool repositories, intranets,knowledge management systems, or document management systems.
 14. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the transformation tool includes: (i) entity,concept and relationship tagging and extraction tools, (ii)categorization and topic extraction tools, (iii) data matching tools or,(iv) custom transformations.
 15. An extraction service for extractingunstructured data from a plurality of unstructured data sources and aplurality of formats comprising: a plurality of APIs to interface withthe plurality of unstructured data sources; and a single internal APIthat interfaces with a plurality of software components that allowstructured data tools to operate on unstructured data.
 16. Theextraction service of claim 15, wherein the plurality of unstructureddata sources includes email, word processing documents, spreadsheets,presentation materials, PDF files, web pages, news/media reports, casefiles, transcriptions, file servers, web servers, enterprise content,enterprise search tool repositories, intranets, knowledge managementsystems, and document management systems. 17.-27. (canceled)